Roxi
Active member
Waumbek gets a bad rap. I've heard that some folks think it's only hiked for peakbagging. I strongly disagree. The first time I hiked Waumbek I met a local woman who regularly takes her kids and dogs hiking on it. My second time hiking this mountain, I specifically chose it for several reasons:
1) The forecast was for cloudy weather with brief moments of sunshine that would be gone quickly. Since Waumbek has a viewless summit, I wouldn't feel I was missing anything. And there actually are a few places where you can peak through the trees for views, although half of our views yesterday were of clouds.
2) I NEEDED to go hiking. A toe injury earlier this spring, following by trying to hike again on it too soon, knocked that activity off my list for 10 weeks. Add to that daily rain showers up here this summer, house renovations down south, and fun kayaking everywhere, my motivation for hiking was low until recently. Waumbek provided a not-too-steep test to see if the injury was finally healed. It is, and hiking is back on my activity list.
3) The trailhead is only a half hour from my condo, which makes Waumbek convenient.
4) Larry wanted to check another peak off his list while I still live up here. (okay, HIS reason for hiking Waumbek was peakbagging, but that wasn't MY reason!).
5) The trail itself is beautiful! After all the rain we've had this summer, the forest is so lush with vegetation. The temps were mild, but the humidity was high so we felt like we were hiking through a tropical rainforest. Moss hung off the tree branches and the ferns were huge! A few bugs including mosquitos were still out, but not too bothersome. The trail was a little wet and muddy in places but not too bad. It really was a beautiful hike!
6) It was flags on the 48! Who else is going to see the flag flying from Waumbek but people already on its summit? We met a great family (the Spittels?) Sarah, Rob, Alan(?), Sam, "the kids," and two beautiful black labs who happen to live in Wilton, a town Larry and I used to live in and had built a house there. Turns out Sarah knows folks that I know there, so I was able to catch up on the old neighborhood and pass along well wishes. What's the chance of meeting people who live less than a mile from where I used to, while hiking Waumbek?? Too cool! Btw, they had the most awesome system for raising their flag. They used a telescoping golf ball retriever - quick, easy, and lightweight. Their flag looked great! Many thanks to them for raising the flag on Waumbek! And we weren't the only ones hiking Waumbek yesterday. We met another 6 people heading up while we were heading down, and we noticed a full parking lot when we got back to the car. Waumbek was pretty popular yesterday, and not all were peakbagging.
7) Following a great hike, we headed out to Moat Mountain Brewery for a fabulous dinner that hit the spot (medium rare hamburger w/ guacamole and salsa - how can you go wrong?). Ok, we could go there after hiking any mountain, but planning to go there ahead of time made hiking Waumbek even more fun!
Waumbek was a perfect mountain to hike yesterday for LOTS of reasons! If you were also out hiking yetserday, I hope you had as much fun as I did.
1) The forecast was for cloudy weather with brief moments of sunshine that would be gone quickly. Since Waumbek has a viewless summit, I wouldn't feel I was missing anything. And there actually are a few places where you can peak through the trees for views, although half of our views yesterday were of clouds.
2) I NEEDED to go hiking. A toe injury earlier this spring, following by trying to hike again on it too soon, knocked that activity off my list for 10 weeks. Add to that daily rain showers up here this summer, house renovations down south, and fun kayaking everywhere, my motivation for hiking was low until recently. Waumbek provided a not-too-steep test to see if the injury was finally healed. It is, and hiking is back on my activity list.
3) The trailhead is only a half hour from my condo, which makes Waumbek convenient.
4) Larry wanted to check another peak off his list while I still live up here. (okay, HIS reason for hiking Waumbek was peakbagging, but that wasn't MY reason!
).5) The trail itself is beautiful! After all the rain we've had this summer, the forest is so lush with vegetation. The temps were mild, but the humidity was high so we felt like we were hiking through a tropical rainforest. Moss hung off the tree branches and the ferns were huge! A few bugs including mosquitos were still out, but not too bothersome. The trail was a little wet and muddy in places but not too bad. It really was a beautiful hike!
6) It was flags on the 48! Who else is going to see the flag flying from Waumbek but people already on its summit? We met a great family (the Spittels?) Sarah, Rob, Alan(?), Sam, "the kids," and two beautiful black labs who happen to live in Wilton, a town Larry and I used to live in and had built a house there. Turns out Sarah knows folks that I know there, so I was able to catch up on the old neighborhood and pass along well wishes. What's the chance of meeting people who live less than a mile from where I used to, while hiking Waumbek?? Too cool! Btw, they had the most awesome system for raising their flag. They used a telescoping golf ball retriever - quick, easy, and lightweight. Their flag looked great! Many thanks to them for raising the flag on Waumbek! And we weren't the only ones hiking Waumbek yesterday. We met another 6 people heading up while we were heading down, and we noticed a full parking lot when we got back to the car. Waumbek was pretty popular yesterday, and not all were peakbagging.
7) Following a great hike, we headed out to Moat Mountain Brewery for a fabulous dinner that hit the spot (medium rare hamburger w/ guacamole and salsa - how can you go wrong?). Ok, we could go there after hiking any mountain, but planning to go there ahead of time made hiking Waumbek even more fun!
Waumbek was a perfect mountain to hike yesterday for LOTS of reasons! If you were also out hiking yetserday, I hope you had as much fun as I did.
